By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the Bello Vita Event Venue in Visalia on Thursday, July 24, 2025 and on Micro Snot Teams. Mr. Gates continues to mock me. Each part of the year has its own charms here in the San Joaquin Valley. This week has had
exceptionally nice weather. Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s and dipping down to the low 60s at night. I’ve been in Idaho when it was -30 and Mexico when it was above 100 with 100 percent humidity. While I haven’t seen much of the world I can say without fear – a summer evening in this Valley with its low humidity mild breezes can be the best weather on earth.
The Meeting
Things kicked off with Chairman Rick Borges calling the meeting to order slightly after the scheduled 10:00am start. Friant holds closed session first and it ran a bit late. He hammered home the gavel about a quarter after. Director Cliff Loeffler gave thanks to God (Jesus not the universe) for the pleasant weather and asked for wisdom.
Water Report
Ian Buck-Macleod gave his report saying it’s been a mild summer but not much in the way of monsoonal rains this year. Temperature management at Shasta has gone well
although not as much Trinity River supplies haven’t been available to supplement Shasta supplies. The Delta has been bumping up against water quality under D-1641. A high tide forced reduction at the federal Jones Plant to two pumps. He said the 55 percent allocation for south of Delta Central Valley Project supplies can’t withstand many more hiccups this season. Thankfully the Fall X2 shouldn’t play into the chaos this year. The X2 Line you may recall is the distance from the Golden Gate salt water intrudes inland through the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays and up the Carquinez Straight into the Delta.
Millerton Lake and Friant Kern Canal was looking at maybe having to reduce its 100 percent allocation but Southern California Edison has been willing to release some upstream water on the San Joaquin River. Buck-Macleod reported the there’s been 12,000 a/f of recapture water and that, if I understood, can go to Class II contracts. Good for them.
Gov’t Mischief
Johnny Amaral said Mike Villines was available to report on state matters. Villines said the legislature is on break and will come back August 18th. During this recess he said he’s working on getting some funding for the San Joaquin River.
Amaral said President Donald Trump is urging the Senate to not go on vacation but stay and confirm his nominations. There was a Friant delegation in Washington last week that pushed for federal funding on four California projects. There are congressional staff tours for the westside that Friant will participate in.
On Thursday, August 7th Congressman Jim Costa will host a large stakeholder meeting focusing on water and held in Los Banos. This is something he does each year and never invites me. Don’t know why. After all we’ve been through.
O&M
David Dees gave the report for Chris Hickernell. There was no word where Hickernell was but wherever he is, I hope he’s having a good time. Now, the Friant crew is a well oiled machine and Dees was able to give a report that was pretty much routine.
They’re fixing things and cleaning things and in general making it work for the growers, homes and businesses relying on water.
Water Blueprint
Austin Ewell started his report by apologizing to the other boy band members for not wearing a blue blazer. He was in a grey sports coat. But as far as the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley he reported there is a focus on pushing better regulatory and funding priorities to Congress. There are two power point presentations developed by Stantec Engineering dealing with the groundwater banking program investigation.
The other big responsibility of the Blueprint is to develop the Unified Water Plan for the SJV. There has been a strong push to get this plan completed as it is key to the Valley prioritizing its water needs. Fresno State University has been instrumental in helping move this project forward.
San Luis Delta Mendota
CEO Jason Phillips tag teamed with CFO Wilson Orvis saying the upper Delta Mendota Canal needs a $30 million capacity increase just downstream of the Jones Plant. He said the SLDM board was responsible in what it instructed staff since there is another $60 million hanging out for downstream. There needs to be panels replaced. Friant has much experience in this.
Phillips said if the beneficiaries don’t want to pay for this it is time to move on. Subsidence is a different matter when allocating costs. Phillips said there was a big workshop last month. He said Friant is willing to help pay for panel replacements as part of SLDM’s O&M costs but subsidence should fall under a different category. I think I got that right.
Orvis said the cooperation between stakeholders and the work that has gone into this has moved things forward. That’s good to hear as there used to be a divide between eastside and westside water interests. There still is a little but things are getting better thanks to following the goal of integrating cooperation into decisions.
CEO
Phillips said the State Water Resources Control Board is holding a hearing on the Voluntary Agreements, also known as the involuntary agreements (depending on whose water is up for grabs) or the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes. There will be a comment period and Phillips said Friant will certainly weigh in.
Last week US Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum toured the westside and Phillips got a call Sunday to show up. He said Burgum was very engaged. Burgum was expecting to hear more consensus from the federal agencies. He was also reportedly very surprised to learn how much shade was being cast on agriculture in California by the state government, its more regulation as the main goal operations style and the NGOs that wag that dog.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:06am and lunch was served. That’s that, go be good to yourself and others.
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FRIANT WATER AUTHORITY
854 N. Harvard Ave., Lindsay, CA 93247, Office 559/562-6305 Email:information@friantwater.org www.friantwater.org
The Friant Water Authority is a Joint Powers Agreement with 15 districts to operate and maintain the Friant Division of the Central Valley Water Project. Water from the San Joaquin River is diverted at Friant Dam at Millerton Lake to the Madera/Chowchilla Canal to the north and the Friant/Kern Canal to the south. More than one million acres of mostly family farms and numerous communities get their surface supplies from the Friant Division.
Board: Chair Jim Erickson, Vice Chair Rick Borges
Staff: CEO Jason Phillips, COO Johnny Amaral, CFO Wilson Orvis, Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod, Engineer Katie Duncan, Superintendent Chris Hickernell and Attorney Don Davis.
